Awards and Festivals
Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival 2016
Fasken Martineau Best Feature Film Award
QCinema Film Festival 2015
Best Picture
Best Director
Best Supporting Actress – Annicka Dolonius
Excellence in Technical Achievement for Editing
Gawad Urian
Winner, Best Supporting actress – Ana Abad Santos
PMPC STAR AWARDS
Winner, Best Cinematography
Film Academy of the Philippines
Winner, Best Supporting actress – Ana Abad Santos
Udine Far East Film Festival, Italy
Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival, Korea
Cinemalaya, Philippines
Silk Screen Film Festival, USA
Reviews
Film School Rejects
“Everything about this movie is just so goddamn beautiful.” — Rob Hunter”
Rappler
“Mario Cornejo’s Apocalypse Child is astonishing in its calmness. It is mature in its approach to drama, revealing only little bits and pieces of a backstory but enunciating the pains that resoundingly result from it.” — Oggs Cruz
Young Critics Circle
“Everything, from the performances (the ensemble work is the year’s best) to the visuals and editing, is so on point that one begs to watch it again as soon as the credits roll.” — Skilty Labastilla
Film Police
From its sun-kissed cinematography of Baler to its opening monologue on myths, Apocalypse Childtakes no shame in driving to the audience its theme of escape, and it is in dwelling in this longing to get away — 5/5
Lilok Pelikula
“It’s been a while since a drama of this scale and range is produced, the years spent on research and incubation unmistakably felt in the edges, with how Mario Cornejo’s direction tightens Monster Jimenez’s script with ruthless calm, how the tension is built based on breathing intervals. Fuck, this movie still owes me a drink.” — Richard Bolisay
ABS-CBN News
Why Apocalypse Child won Best Picture in QCinema 2015
JURY CITATIONS
Citation for Best Picture
Intense, brave, and superbly nuanced performances anchor a subtle and masterful examination of how the hidden hurts of the past and the inability to face the present affect relationships. The film tells an apparently simple narrative of friendship, loyalty, and desire but delves so much further into how history has a way of hitting back and how the so-called truth can sometimes be the contorted lies we tell ourselves. The beauty of the filmmaking elevates a simple story into powerful drama that unravels the fractured nature of identity. This is NOT just a surfing movie shot in Baler.
The Jury of the Circle Competition awards the Best Film prize to Apocalypse Child.
Citation for Artistic Achievement
The jury chose to honor the artistic achievement of one who belongs in a field that’s often unnoticed, and far too frequently described as a technical expertise rather than an art. This person’s contribution to one particular QCinema 2015 entry made it breathe above and underwater, made it float, glide, and dance on wave upon wave. Here is undeniable skill buoyed by depth of feeling, a sure command of the rules for efficient storytelling bending to the rhythms of idiosyncrasy and empathy. We are thrilled to award this recognition of artistic achievement to the Editor of Apocalypse Child, Lawrence Ang.
Apocalypse Child 